


hush little one, don't you cry

by weasleyspotter



Series: Ward x Simmons Tumblr Prompts [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Baby Fic, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 20:30:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1199149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleyspotter/pseuds/weasleyspotter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were going to make it work for as long as they possibly could, or at least until they found her parents. That was the plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hush little one, don't you cry

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic a really long time ago, probably around the time that I first started writing for the pair. It's for batsonbrain's prompt accidentally acquiring a baby on a mission, and I kinda took it from there. This fic is a bit more Skye centric, and the characterization is a bit different from my usual style, because I wrote this when I was still getting a feel for all the characters. It's also a bit more angst than the prompt probably called for, but I couldn't think of how to make a baby on the Bus work realistically.

i.

The baby lies in the middle of the room, wailing unhelpfully.

"You should pick her up," Fitz supplies.

"Me? Why me? You see boobs and think that I become the temporary mother? Hell no," Skye refuses backing away.

"No," Fitz stutters out, "I didn't see any," he gulps, "boobs. Not that you don't have boobs, I mean of course you do, you're a woman. It's just that I didn't notice them, I mean, of course I've noticed them-."

"For god's sake," Ward growls out, stalks past Fitz and expertly picks up the screaming child. The child, in turn, begins to quiet, succumbing to hiccupping sobs, as Ward hushes the child.

"Whoa," Skye's eyes widen at the sight of her S.O. with the baby. "Am I dreaming?"

Ward glares at her over the baby's head. "Guess not," she finishes. "You know this is all Simmons' fault anyway, shouldn't she be taking care of the baby?"

"Oh she's gone out to get supplies," Fitz supplies, eager to get back on Skye's good graces. "Bottles, nappies, stuff like that."

"Nappies?" Skye mouths towards Ward, who ignores her in favor of the baby. Was she in a parallel universe where her gruff cold S.O. was actually a big softie and cooed at babies? "Am I the only one weirded out by this?" She directs at Fitz.

"Well Agent Ward does have two nieces, I'm sure he's had some experience around babies." Coulson appears right behind Skye, following their gazes to Ward holding the child. Skye turns a questioning eye towards him. "It was in his file," Coulson replies to the unanswered question.

"Sir," Skye appeals, "You're not going to let this," she gestures towards Ward, "happen, right?"

"Let Ward hold the baby," Coulson raises an eyebrow, "To be quite honest, I think he's the only one out of us qualified to hold the baby. However if you want to try, Skye, I'm sure Ward will give you a chance."

"I doubt that," she mutters under her breath. She can already tell that Ward's got that look in his eyes. That look that he gets when anyone tries to hurt something he cares about, and she knows that look well because she sees it a lot. That look that tells him that he's completely whipped. It's almost like his Jemma look, only a bit more intense. "But no, thanks. It's just a baby, aboard the bus," she gestures around them, "seems like a recipe for disaster."

"It's just temporary," Coulson reassures her. "May is already digging into SHIELD's files to track down her parents. I'm sure we'll have her home by the end of the day."

ii.

"I've got it," Jemma announces as she walks into the room with six bags hanging off her hands. Behind her follows May and Coulson, each carrying an equal amount of stuff.

"Did you buy out the whole baby store?" Skye looks up incredulously from her laptop.

"No," Jemma says, looking slightly confused. "I just asked the store clerk what I would need to take care of a baby, and he was kind enough to point out everything that we would need."

Skye sighs and shakes her head. "You never ask them, they'll always try and rip you off. Besides the kid's only staying with us for a few hours at most, right? All we really need are diapers and maybe a bottle." She strides over to one of Jemma's bags and pulls out a box, "A bottle warmer? Seriously?! Tell me you didn't buy a breast pump."

"No," Jemma shakes her head, as if the idea was ridiculous even to her. "That would be ridiculous as none of us are actually lactating."

“Look just take Ward some diapers or a bottle or whatever. I’ve got a search running on the DNA you lifted from her blanket. We should know her parents within an hour.”

“Okay,” Jemma says eagerly. She rifles around in the bags for a few moments before she pulls out a can of formula, an empty bottle, and a slightly massive diaper bag. She grabs the bottle warmer from Skye’s hands and practically bounces out of the room.

iii.

The DNA turns out to match one of the men that they had found her with, who they had to ‘put down’ in order to retrieve her. In other words, it was a dead end.

However that wasn’t what got to Skye.

“You named her?!” She practically shrieks at Jemma, who flinches slightly at the pitch of Skye’s voice, but continues to smile as she gently rocks the baby back and forth in her hands. Ward stands a few feet behind her, arms crossed across his chest, ready to intervene if it got necessary. “And you let this happen,” she looks past Jemma to glare at Ward, who looks slightly contrite.

“I happen to think Ella is a great name,” Fitz looks up from the gadget he’s tinkering on.

“Not helping,” Skye holds out her hand towards him.

“Isn’t it,” Jemma asks at the same time towards Fitz. “I thought that calling her baby wasn’t right. It’s just a temporary name.”

“Just a temporary name?” Skye scoffs. “Jemma, naming things is how you get attached to them. Besides what if you confuse her.”

“She’s not going to get confused,” Ward jumps in.

“And you know that how? Just because you turned out to be some sort of baby whisper-.”

“Skye, don’t you think you might be overreacting?” Jemma asks softly.

“No,” Skye says defensively, “I think I’m the only one reacting properly. Just because you all lost your minds, doesn’t mean that I can’t be the only sane one.” She stalks out.

“I think that went well,” Fitz says, once Skye was out of ear shot.

iv.

Ward finds her in the training room.

“If you’re here to give me a lecture about keeping my temper in check,” she punches the training dummy particularly viciously. “Save it.”

“No,” Ward says, walking around her to stand right in front of her. “I’m here to tell you I understand.”

“And what do you _understand_?” 

“I understand that you want this girl to get back to her family. For her parents to not be dead. You want us to stop acting like we’re going to keep her, because you think that she should be with her family. You want to make sure that happens, because you don’t want her to end up like you.”

“I appreciate the attempt to understand my psych,” she punches the bag again, pretending it’s his face. “But you actually don’t understand.”

“You’re right,” he shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t understand. I don’t understand why you can’t bring it in yourself to understand that we’re all trying to make this work. That Jemma is doing the best that she can, and you keep tearing her down. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want this baby to be raised in the best possible circumstances-.”

“And you think that’s this?” She gestures around herself. “It’s one thing if you and Jemma chose to have a baby and then chose to live on the bus with a baby. But this is an innocent child that didn’t get a choice. You’re practically taking her under your wing and raising her as the WardSimmons lovechild.”

“We’re not-,” Ward begins.

“And don’t get me wrong, I think you and Jemma will be great parents. You’ll probably be that over protective dad and Jemma will the quirky mother. And you’ll love your kids to death. Anyone will be screwed over if they try to mess with your kids. You’ll probably pull out all your navy seal moves and Jemma will threaten them with lab chemicals. It’s just that she’s got a family out there who is probably worried sick about her. And even if they are dead, she deserves better than to grow up in a SHIELD facility.” She huffs out.

“We’re not adopting her,” Ward emphasizes. “You’re right, she’s got a family out there. And we’re going to find it for her. In the mean time, we’re just trying to keep her from growing up in a SHIELD facility.”

“You say that,” Skye says softly, pulling off her gloves. “But I see the way you are around her. The way that you look at her. I wish I could believe you.”

v.

“Did you talk to her?” Jemma asks as he walks into his bunk.

He takes a moment to admire the way she looks. Her brown hair is out of her early ponytail. She’s cradling Ella to her chest with one hand, and holding a bottle with her other. For a moment, it’s easy to imagine that Ella is theirs.

“Yeah,” Grant says sitting on the bed besides Jemma. He looks down at Ella, she looks up at him, and he swears her eyes light up in recognition. “She’s pissed.”

“Not around the baby,” Jemma reprimands. “I gathered as much. Any idea why?”

“She thinks we’re replacing Ella’s parents, and we’re getting too attached. That we might think it’s a good idea to actually raise her.” As he says that, he can feel the truth in Skye’s words. Maybe it had been since they were the only ones who experience, or because they were the couple on board, but Jemma and him had naturally taken to caring for Ella, like her parents. And he could definitely feel himself becoming more and more attached. He refused to think about whether he was actually considering the last part.

“She’s probably right,” Jemma says softly.

“Perhaps,” Grant says, “but I’d rather her stay with us for the time being than ship her off to some SHIELD facility.”

“Of course,” Jemma agrees quickly. She looks down at Ella, “She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?”

Grant doesn’t miss the change of subject. He welcomes it though. “Yeah.”

He thought that if he squinted, she looked like Jemma, sort of. She had the same mousy brown hair, the same hazel eyes, even the same face shape. He thought that she might have the same eye shape as him. He was reaching, he knew.

She was starting to feel like their child. And that was dangerous.

vi.

By the end of a week with the baby, they all settle into a sort of routine.

It is established that Simmons and Ward are her primary caregivers, of a sort. They watch her during the night, and for most of the day. They still took on missions. And then the mission required them to both leave the baby, they established a totem pole of babysitting.

Coulson, who had a surprisingly soft touch when it came to the baby, was first. Perhaps it was the belief that the baby would eventually leave the bus, or the acceptance that having her on board wasn’t such a bad idea, but aside from Simmons and Ward, he was the only one who accepted her presence without questioning. He had taken on educating the baby. Of course at six months, this education entailed Coulson talking about subjects that interested him and the baby staring up at him enthralled, without a clue of what he was talking about.

May, who continued to remain tight lipped on her opinion about whether or not the baby belonged on board, came second. When Jemma had decided to start the baby on food, it had been May who insisted on mashing all of the baby’s food herself, instead of letting Jemma used canned Gerber’s food. It was around May that the baby sat up for the first time and crawled for the first time. Fitz had joked that it was May who pushed the baby to her physical limits, he had began to make a joke about May becoming the baby’s S.O., but Skye silenced him with a look.

Fitz, with great reluctance on Ward’s part, came third. Much to Ward’s pleasure, it was very rare that they called on Fitz to babysit.

Skye came dead last. And to her pleasure, they had never asked her.

Until now.

“You can’t be serious,” she groans out.

“I’m not going to beg you,” Ward grounds out, holding the baby stiffly. “I thought this is what you wanted.”

“I wanted you to find her parents, which I did. Not make me take care of _her_.”

“The extraction plan requires all of us. Except for you. You agreed to do it.”

“No,” she reminds him, “Coulson is making me take care of her.”

“Same difference,” Ward brushes off. “Here,” he hands her the baby, before Skye can protest again. “The diaper bag is on the counter. Jemma’s left a schedule in there, just follow it. And don’t screw this up.” He stalks off, shoulders tense.

Skye considers following him, continuing her protests. She knew that the imminent possibility of the baby leaving had left everyone on edge, especially Simmons and Ward. And a lot of Ward’s anger ended up directed at her, because she was the only one who insisted on getting the baby off the bus. And she gets that makes her ‘the enemy’ in Ward’s books. But still it was a step too far, putting her in charge of the child.

Just then, the baby, whose lips had been whimpering since Ward left, erupts in full blown screams.

“Oh no.” Skye starts to bounce the baby up and down as she had seen Jemma do previously. She shushes the baby to no avail. If anything the motion seems to make the baby even more agitated. “Did Ward pay you to act like this?” She asks rhetorically.

She pulled out nearly everything. She tried the car seat, rocking her methodically back and forth. She tried placing her in the play pen, showing her each other her stuff toys one by one, even tried to put on a mini puppet show, using those stupid voices that Jemma always uses. She drags out the baby swing, but she can’t even place the baby inside because she’s squirming so much. She tries reading, like Ward does, but the baby’s screaming so loud.

Eventually she settles on music. It’s a shot in the dark. She puts on her hacking playlist, which admittedly doesn’t sound good, but is actually filled with instrumental music. At first the baby ignored her efforts, but eventually the music got to her and she quieted. “You like this?” Skye asks her softly. “It’s Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.” The explanation is unnecessary, it’s not like the baby even understands her, but once she starts, she can’t stop. “There’s this music teacher that used to come to the home. He’s the one that got me into music.”

The baby stares at her, like she stares at everyone on the bus, completely enthralled. And in that moment, Skye understands. She understands why Simmons and Ward have taken to being her pseudo parents. Why Coulson and May haven’t said a word about the baby being on board. Why everyone had been calling her Ella, except for Skye. She knows that it’s wrong to say that one moment erases every reason she’s cited for why Ella shouldn’t be aboard the Bus. Especially since she’s about to leave.

“I kinda don’t want you to leave,” she admits. “You’ve grown on me.” Ella babbles in response. She’d begin to expand her vocabulary, and hadn’t exactly spoken words, but she was getting there. Everyone had taken to playing the game of getting Ella to say her first word. Coulson had stuck to the originals and pointed out everyone to her and said their names over and over. Fitz researched easy syllables for babies and said every word that he could think of with those syllables. May was the only one who remained level headed about the entire issue, and even Skye had caught her enunciating her name in front of the baby.

It had taken a few hours, but eventually Skye settled into a sort of comfortable state. Ella slept in her car seat (why she had a car seat when she flew around in a plane was beyond Skye), while Skye researched on her tablet. It was Jemma who flew into the Bus first.

“Hey,” Skye began sitting up, and before she could finish, Jemma was out of earshot. “What’s going-?” She asked as Ward ran in after her. A few minutes later, May, Coulson, and Fitz walked in looking worse for the wear. “What happened?” She stood up, folding her arms across her chest, determined to get an answer. “Did you find Ella’s parents?”

“We did,” Coulson says. May gives him a disapproving look, and Skye knows there’s more.

“And?” She asks impatiently, “Where are they?”

“They were dead,” Fitz says quietly.

vii.

They get enough information about Ella’s parents to guess what happened.

Ella’s father was a scientist who had stumbled upon some interesting technology. Although it was nothing more than a lead at most, it had attracted unwanted attention. And in a lethal game of tug of war, Ella’s mother and father had ended up as the causalities.

It had taken everything in Skye to not demand more answers. She knew that there had to be some sort of protocol about all this stuff. (Although the chances of Director Fury thinking that it would happen that two of his agents decided to adopt a six month old aboard a huge floating spy agency were slim to none.)

Fitz and Coulson kept her on a tight leash. Fitz followed her around everywhere, and while that normally didn’t bother her (because he did it anyway), it was the way that he watched her around Ward and Simmons that started to get to her. It was like he was waiting for her to say or do something stupid.

But Skye waited, because she could be patient. At least she could try.

viii.

“We should talk,” Fitz announces before striding into her bunk.

“Please, make yourself at home,” Skye says sarcastically from her bed.

“Agent Coulson and I agreed that we should inform you,” Fitz gulps, “that you are to leave Agent Ward and Agent Simmons alone until they make their decision.”

“Excuse me?”

“Let them be,” Fitz pleads, dropping the formal act, “this is hard enough without you sulking around.”

“I wasn’t going to sulk,” she says indignantly. “Really.”

He shoots her a look, “You haven’t exactly made your disapproval of the situation quiet.”

“Because I don’t think a baby belongs a massive aircraft that has been shot out of the sky numerous times. Because I don’t think a baby should have to face the possibility of losing it’s parents every day. Because I don’t think any parent that has be put his or her life on the line has to make the decision to sacrifice themselves at the cost of their child’s happiness.”

Fitz sits in front of her stunned.

“I get it,” she insists, “Okay? She’s adorable and perfect. Ward and Simmons will make great parents, and she’ll never lack anything. I just want them to think about what they’re doing to themselves, and that kid.”

“Her name is Ella,” Fitz says quietly. “In my opinion, I think it’s better for a baby to deal with that, then to be surrounded by strangers that don’t care about her. And I think that you would agree.”

It’s like he slapped her in the face, because she does agree. She remembers those moments when she wished that someone would just come along and whisk her away, she didn’t care who it was as long as they loved her.

“I won’t say anything,” Skye says softly.

“Skye,” Fitz says pleadingly. He says her name almost like an apology.

“I’ll keep quiet,” she promises, “Could you please leave?”

He stares at her for a long moment, before striding out.

ix.

They waited two days to debrief.

It’s unspoken that whatever Ward and Simmons decide, the team will stand by them. But that everyone would get a chance to voice an opinion.

“Before we begin,” Jemma says formally. Skye wonders if Jemma had prepared and practiced this speech. “I’d just like to say that Grant and I have thought long and hard about this. And we want you all to know that your opinions-.”

“Matter a lot to you?” Skye asks with a raised eyebrow. Ward shoots her a glare. “Look we get it, just tell us what you’ve decided.” Coulson, May and Fitz join Ward. “Don’t tell me you weren’t curious,” she mutters under her breath, but stays quiet for a good measure.

“We’re going to adopt her,” Ward finishes quickly. “We know that it’s a burden on all of you, and we won’t ask anything of you.”

“You don’t have to,” Coulson interrupts. “We’ll make it work.”

 x.

“Are you okay with this?”

It takes Jemma two hours to work up the courage to ask Skye that question. And while she knows that the answer would never change her decision to raise Ella. It occurs to her how much it would hurt to lose a friend, and how horrid it would be for Ella to grow up in an environment where someone disliked her.

“Would it matter if I wasn’t,” Skye asks seriously. She watches as Jemma struggles with the question. Of course she knows the answer, it wouldn’t matter. She’s not that stupid. And in a way that warms her heart. Perhaps Ella wouldn’t have her biological parents, but she’d have two parents who loved her so much. And that was good, right? “I’m fine,” she stresses. “It took me awhile to come around. But I get why.”

“Really?” Jemma fights to keep the hope out of her voice.

“Well maybe not why, but more like why her. You and Ward are doing a good job with her, she deserves that.”

“Thanks,” Jemma smiles softly. “I honestly don’t know how we’ll make this work.”

“You know what Coulson said is true,” Skye reassures her, “We will all make this work.”

xi.

Making it work, only works until Ella is eight months old.

It becomes apparent to everyone on the Bus that it’s completely impossible to keep a baby safe, especially a baby that practically insists on sticking her hand in everything she sees. So Jemma and Grant agree to a temporary solution. Ella would stay with Jemma’s parents, and Grant and Jemma would visit her regularly until Ella was old enough to travel with them, or Jemma and Grant were ready to settle down.

It’s the rehearsed manner that they give everyone else, but handing off Ella turns out to be harder than either of them anticipate. They stay at Jemma’s parents’ house for a few days until Ella is situated, longer than they’re supposed to. And when the Shield calls become too much to ignore any longer, they leave.

As they’re saying their goodbyes, Ella giggles at them, unable to understand what’s going on. It’s only when Grant’s leading Jemma towards the door, a supportive hand on the mid of her back, that Ella understands that she’s being left behind. 

It was a blessing, really that they got to at least keep her by leaving her with her grandparents, but as Ella wails at their backs, Grant can’t help but feel like he just failed another person in his life.

xii.

It’s Jemma’s worst nightmare that Ella will forget who they are.

She doesn’t fear dying; it’s one of the things that you unconsciously prepare for when signing up with Shield. The possibility of death is very real. But she fears being forgotten, and even more so when it comes to her daughter.

Leaving her with her parents, it should assuage that fear. She trusts her parents, she knows that they’ll tell her daughter all about her, but she wants more than that. She wants her daughter to have real tangible memories. She wants her daughter to know more about her than a few stories and a redacted Shield file. (She doesn’t want her daughter to end being Skye).

The Bus flies around a lot, so no one notices the number of stops they make just south of Leadworth. She has Skye write it out of their files, and the adoption is listed under one of Grant’s aliases. She plans something for every time they visit, a picnic or a trip to the zoo. Grant buys her a toy from every place they go, something small, while Fitz makes her little gadgets and promises her that one day he’ll make her miniature versions of her Daddy’s guns (to which Jemma sternly disagrees).

They fill Ella’s nursery of pictures of them. Skye fills one of her bookshelves with music, while Coulson and Grant fill the others with books.  May picks out the artwork.

They know that one day in the future, they will settle down, buy a house, and give Ella the life that she deserves. Jemma supposes she may take up teaching, and Grant could be a private security consultant. She knows that one day they’ll leave the Bus. Not today, however.

They’re not perfect parents, but Ella’s face still lights up every time she sees them.

They make it work.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Marvel Agent of Shield Hiatus Hug.


End file.
